Saturday, March 17, 2007

In spite of the fact that he was talking to Mandira Bedi and Charu Sharma on the sets of Max' s Extraa Innings, Dean Jones made a few very pertinent points:

( immediately after the Newzealand-England match)

1. Initial indications show that pace will rule over spin at this World Cup - 1 for 171 for the spinners today. ( includes Panesar, Vettori and Jeetan Patel)

2. Medium scoring games should be the rule rather than the exception: those old-fashioned 200-250 run games, which i think were far more fun than these 300+ run fests. Of course, we are not talking about those other games, where Gibbs hits six sixes in six balls, and then Boucher hits quite a few more.

3. Middle-order and lower middle order batters will be just as important as the top, if not more. ( ok, this Dino didnt say, i made it up)

I think it's too early to make any generalised assessments, but he may just have a point - and if he has one, it's not the best news for India or Lanka. Even if we pass off our pace attack as decent, surely our late middle-order is no where good enough. SA and NZ - they suddenly look very good. But i just want to wait - there's a difference between Kumble / Harbhajan and Panesar / Vettori. What say? I'm a little worried already.

About Me

The author, a Management Consultant passed out of MICA in 2001. He did his graduation from the College of Business Studies, Delhi University. He was earlier employed with IMS as Zonal Marketing Manager and now is a freelance Online Marketing Consultant. You may write to him at amitbajaj100@hotmail.com